La carga eléctrica es una propiedad física intrínseca de algunas partículas subatómicas que se manifiesta mediante fuerzas de atracción y repulsión entre ellas por la mediación de campos electromagnéticos. La materia cargada eléctricamente es influida por los campos electromagnéticos, siendo a su vez, generadora de ellos. La denominada interacción electromagnética entre carga y campo eléctrico es una de las cuatro interacciones fundamentales de la física. Desde el punto de vista del modelo estándar la carga eléctrica es una medida de la capacidad que posee una partícula para intercambiar fotones. Una de las principales características de la carga eléctrica es que, en cualquier proceso físico, la carga total de un sistema aislado siempre se conserva. Es decir, la suma algebraica de las cargas positivas y negativas no varía en el tiempo. La carga eléctrica es de naturaleza discreta, fenómeno demostrado experimentalmente por Robert Millikan. Por razones históricas, a los electrones se les asignó carga negativa: –1, también expresada –e. Los protones tienen carga positiva: +1 o +e. A los quarks se les asigna carga fraccionaria: ±1/3 o ±2/3, aunque no se los ha podido observar libres en la naturaleza.

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Electric charge is the physical property of matter that causes it to experience a force when placed in an electromagnetic field. There are two types of electric charges: positive and negative. Like charges repel and unlike attract. An object is negatively charged if it has an excess of electrons, and is otherwise positively charged or uncharged. The SI derived unit of electric charge is the coulomb (C). In electrical engineering, it is also common to use the ampere-hour (Ah), and, in chemistry, it is common to use the elementary charge (e) as a unit. The symbol Q often denotes charge. Early knowledge of how charged substances interact is now called classical electrodynamics, and is still accurate for problems that don't require consideration of quantum effects. The electric charge is a fundamental conserved property of some subatomic particles, which determines their electromagnetic interaction. Electrically charged matter is influenced by, and produces, electromagnetic fields. The interaction between a moving charge and an electromagnetic field is the source of the electromagnetic force, which is one of the four fundamental forces (See also: magnetic field). Twentieth-century experiments demonstrated that electric charge is quantized; that is, it comes in integer multiples of individual small units called the elementary charge, e, approximately equal to 1.602×10−19 coulombs (except for particles called quarks, which have charges that are integer multiples of  1⁄3e). The proton has a charge of +e, and the electron has a charge of −e. The study of charged particles, and how their interactions are mediated by photons, is called quantum electrodynamics.

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